With a flash of bright golden light, Fen appeared in the Squad room.
"Holy shit!"
"What the fuck is that!"
"Eek!"
"..."
The warm welcoming that Fen thought he would receive was nowhere in sight, unfortunately. What he saw when he opened his eyes was a spear pointed directly at him by a freaked out Qin, an Amelia who was flat on the floor from having fallen after seeing Fen, and Gray, who screamed before passing out. The only thing they had in common was the shocked face of terror plastered on their faces.
Fen frowned, drawing another horrified look, before realizing the reason behind their reactions. In the glow of the interface he managed to see a reflection of his appearance. The youth froze in place when he saw how he looked.
He looked away.
He looked again at his reflection.
If there was such a thing as a humanoid monster, Fen was the walking personification of it; his bare bones were visible in multiple places, with tattered skin covering some parts of his body. His left hand alone was missing the skin from four of his fingers, and his right leg was still attempting to heal itself from having snapped in two, leaving it horribly twisted and hard to look at.
His handsome (?) face was burnt away revealing the bare muscles underneath, with only his eyes untouched as those two organs were prioritized when Fen sent his Vital energy throughout his body. His hair was similarly torched with only a few spots left with his dark brown hair. His teeth were horrifying to look at, cracked and broken in multiple places.
Clink!
One of his teeth fell to the ground and disintegrated as his cells died, while a new one regenerated in the empty spot it left in his mouth. The grisly scene of seeing the organic material melt away only intensified the horror that Qin and Amelia were feeling, and didn't help Fen's case.
His uniform was almost completely gone, with a few scraps of cloth grafting into what was left of his skin.
To add on to his entire appearance, Fen was now holding the Iberian short sword he left in the Scenario, adding to his menacing appearance.
Taking a moment to review these details, it was no surprise that his Squad mates weren't exactly thrilled to see him. If Fen saw himself, he might rush to kill the monster he looked like!
Fen immediately raised his hands out in front him while dropping his short sword on the ground, the universal gesture for 'I mean no harm'. However, his Squad mates didn't seem to understand as they scrambled across the room to run away from him.
...Well, at least Qin's spear wasn't pointed at him anymore.
It appeared that only thirty minutes have passed, the exact time that the Scenario lasted, so thankfully Fen didn't lose any time in the Program. That was probably another reason why his Squad mates were so shocked to see him; he hadn't actually told them what he was doing...
Well, he didn't think that he'd meet a magically-enabled Lesser Dragon either, so was he really to blame for this situation?
So, while they were relaxing and having a good time on the Squad room couch, a monster with a sword suddenly popped into existence right in front of them.
'I wish I could explain, but my vocal cords are destroyed right now. Damn, I don't have enough Vital energy to heal my entire body either.'
Focusing his body, Fen sent a sliver of Vital energy to his throat to repair his vocal cords so that he could speak again and make sure the others wouldn't attack him for thinking he was a monster.
It turned out that he didn't have to worry; none of them approached him while his throat was healing, they all simply stuck close to each other and watched him with their hands shaking and holding weapons. None of them had the experience that Fen had with killing another living being, they could still be considered normal humans. Fen was the abnormal one.
Qin managed to pluck up his courage and attempt to communicate with the monster that appeared in front of everyone.
"H-hello?" he said in a small voice.
"Ahm phenn" A weird groan came out of Fen's mouth, making everybody except the unconscious Gray flinch. Fen paused from surprise, confused as to why he still couldn't speak correctly despite healing his vocal cords before slapping himself on the head and redirecting his energy to his face.
To say 'I'm Fen', he needed to make an 'f', 'm', and 'n' sound, which needed him to have a tongue and lips to create those sounds, not vocal cords. Honest mistake, truly. He didn't intend to scare the shit out of everyone else, really, even if it was kinda fun. Seeing Amelia flinch backwards was kinda funny though...
"Fen?!" When his face was properly reconstructed Amelia was shocked out of her mind. Qin laid down on the floor as the pent-up stress flowed out of him, replaced by relief.
Fen nodded to them before taking a seat.
"What the hell...what happened? Your body..."
"It's even worse than the explosion..." Amelia trailed off as she looked at the extensive damage on his body.
"Oh, it was much worse. I regenerated a lot of the damage already."
"It was worse?!" Qin cut in when he heard Fen. 'How could it be worse than this?' he thought. The youth was still in the dark regarding Fen's healing ability, thinking that his recovery from Amelia's explosion magic came from the hard work of the Foundation healers. In reality, Fen healed himself while the healers did whatever.
Amelia stepped a little closer to Fen, hesitation flashing on her face.
"Should we go to the infirmary?"
Fen raised his newly regenerated eyebrow. We? If he needed to go he would rather go by himself. Can't lead her on, he had a girlfriend waiting for him on Earth after all. Wouldn't be a good look if he came back as not-a-human and with a new girlfriend, Miko would probably kill him. No scratch that, she'd torture him for years, and then kill him. And that was the best-case scenario.
"Thanks for the offer, but no. I'll heal on my own, just need a moment."
"But doesn't it hurt?"
He shook his head.
"It hurt much worse before, but I was fine, thank you." He had enough awareness to be thankful for her concern. Miko's teachings were still fresh in his mind even a month later; he couldn't start to slack in his work to get friends.
"Alright." Amelia left the issue alone.
"What? No, you need to go to the infirmary!" Qin was astounded at how quickly Amelia gave up trying to take Fen to the infirmary. 'No human could regenerate from that sopping mess of a body, right?' He thought.
And yet, as he watched, more tissue grew back to cover parts of Fen's ravaged body, proving his unbelievable statement. Fen grinned at the expression of shock on Qin's face even while Amelia blanched white from watching the healing process.
"Are you even human?" Qin questioned, making Fen flinch inwardly. The question was a little to close to his own concerns about his own nature.
After recollecting himself, Fen simply nodded his head; it would take too much time to explain to them about his Vitul nature. It was better not to.
"..."
"Wah!"
Just as he was about to finish the regeneration process, Gray woke up from having passed out earlier. Poor kid, he probably had nightmares with Fen's skeleton. Ugh, what a terrible thought to have.
"Hey. What, you look like you've seen a ghost." Fen inwardly smirked as he spoke with an straight face to the small kid.
"What happened? Where's the... the thing?"
"What thing?"
"Huh?"
"Huh?" Fen repeated the word back to Gray just before he grabbed the chair to bring himself up.. He had his fun, now it was time to leave.
Finished talking for the day, Fen stood up, being careful to cover his precious parts as he made his way to the room. His social battery was done for the rest of the afternoon or at least until he finished recovering mentally. Fighting a Lesser Dragon really sucked the energy out of him. Wait, could he even consider that fighting, or just getting his ass kicked until the Dragon finished killing itself?
Whatever, the point was that the Dragon died and he lived, so he could make fun of the Lesser Dragon all he wanted.
'Don't misspeak of the dead,' well if the dead was trying to kill him then Fen would say whatever shit he wanted. Even if nothing happened, Fen hoped that the dead ghost or spirt or whatever would at least get a little mad.
Click!
After his door reassuringly shut behind him, he rolled onto the floor, finally taking the chance to examine his body for wounds.
Despite the strong front he put on in front of the others, Fen only managed to regenerate his upper layers, everything below the skin was still a ravaged mess. He couldn't admit to them that he couldn't get up to go heal in his room, he felt uncomfortable just thinking about revealing his weakness. So, he would quietly rest in pain in his room alone.
'I miss Miko...' his heart sighed as he remembered her calming presence right next to him. He loved himself when he was next to her. And now...
Fen felt like his own body was slowly becoming alien to him. Unfamiliar. Strange. However pragmatic and logical he was, it was still a tough task to ignore the outstanding changes his body was going through. It was like puberty, but worse and yet better at the same time.
At least this time he didn't suddenly sprout a face-full of acne and awkwardness. Wait, would he rather have that? Hell no! He got abs this time, what was there to complain about!
His body changing wasn't the real issue, what Fen was frustrated about was that he couldn't talk to anyone about it. Well, there was Dey, but he'd trade Dey for Miko anytime if he had the option, no offense to Dey.
[None taken.]
"Son of a bitch!" Fen scrambled to his feet, his head frantically moving around him to spot Dey, but he couldn't find him anywhere.
Fen frowned.
"Stay out of my head! I'm a minor, you perverted old man!"
"..."
[OLD?!]
Fen wasn't really hearing Dey's voice, it was more of a noise inside his head. So, needless to say, when Dey screamed into his mind, it really hurt. Almost as much as enduring the Lesser Dragon's attack.
Almost.
[You know *sniffle*, I didn't come here to be insulted... I may be old, but you don't have to remind me!]
Fen waited and waited, but Dey didn't say anything else again.
"Fuu..." Should he be regretful that he made Dey go away? Nah, should be fine. A God can't be that sensitive, he must have some spine to rely on.
But, that encounter now made him wary against future breaches of his mind. The ability to invade his private space was unsettling, but it was more annoying than it was worrying. Dey was a God after all, so the odds of the Foundation being capable of doing the same thing weren't high.
Not that Fen wouldn't try to find a way to prevent it from happening anyway. Caution in everything, that's how he'd stay alive.
"Unhg."
"Hmigh!"
Fen lay on the floor for a good hour, waiting for his body to regenerate everything it needed to. After that, although there were still a few gaps in his body that needed more work, he was comfortable with movement.
The rest should heal while he slept, or during the next day.
There were no more major changes to his body this time, or minor changes either. His body simply healed back to it's prime condition, albeit a little paler now. Then again, he'd get pale eventually anyway; there was no sun to tan his skin.
"..."
Wait, wasn't that a problem. Should he worry about Vitamin D? Were there other ways of getting Vitamin D?
Argh, he shouldn't worry about that. If it was a problem, then the Foundation would have already fixed it.
Anyways, there was something that was prickling at Fen's mind ever since he left the Scenario space; similar to when he felt and experienced Raisen's memories. There was a small orb of 'something' in his mind. It wasn't a physical existence, it was more of a mental one- wait, was this what Dey came to talk to him about?
The more Fen thought about it, the more it seemed like that was true. Shit, he might've lost an opportunity!
Well, even without Dey, Fen was going to mess with it; he already had some experience with dealing with these orbs of 'something' before with Raisen, so he had a faint idea of how to experiment with them.
Drawing his energy inward, Fen focused on circulating his Vital energy around his body to create a barrier between him and the outside world; it wouldn't serve as a shield against anything, not with how little energy he had now, but it was enough to prevent any energy from leaking inside him so that he wouldn't have to worry about losing the mystery orb.
Then, once the enclosed space was created, Fen closed his eyes to visualize his mind. There was nothing there of course, so he instead navigated around using his senses to get around the orb. Once there, he carefully focused his senses to softly penetrate the orb so that he could get inside it.
He let the ball of feeling engulf his consciousness completely, and only then did he open his senses to the outside world, only to find a completely different world. Just like he intended.
"Rawr!"
Hmm? Did he make that sound? As Fen focused himself more to what was going around, he thought the area looked very familiar; as if he had just been there a little less than an hour ago...
Shit, wasn't this the Scenario space that he was in?
His thought was proven correct when his eyes moved involuntarily to see a battered youth's back who was quickly running away, carrying a backpack and short sword with him. That was him!
So these memories were from when he was in the Scenario. Was that because the Lesser Dragon didn't exist before he was there? If not, then it seemed like a big coincidence...
If the space was created every time he entered the Scenario space, then Fen would have to face the Lesser Dragon every single time he tried the Scenario; why the Scenario was listed as the lowest grade, he didn't know. The Foundation was never known for their sane qualities.
If the space wasn't created anew every time, then these memories were probably selected by his ability because of how recent they were; this was the option that Fen really hoped was true, but it wouldn't explain why Fen saw memories of Raisen back when he was a kid. Maybe it was random, and it was all just a massive coincidence.
Either way, he payed close attention to the memory to see if there was anything useful or beneficial to him.
He got to the part when he had just finished making preparations to ambush the Lesser Dragon's wings, observing how his body looked as if it disappeared and reappeared through the air as he leaped. While watching he made tiny notes within his mind about what he could've done better and what could be improved through practice. When he would have to perform the same maneuver again, Fen didn't know, but it was better to be prepared in the case that it did happen again.
He was grateful that he received the opportunity to see his actions; this way he could make notes to focus on improving for later.
Considering that Fen got this sliver of memory by killing the Lesser Dragon, wouldn't he be able to do this exact same thing every time he killed something? The thought of such a thing excited him. Even if he couldn't observe his own actions, he would live through the being's memories, and could learn from them instead.
For example, if he managed to get his hands on a Mage's memories, wouldn't he be able to learn magic spellworks simply by reviewing their memories?
Just as he thought about that, a flash of light drew his attention back to the memory replay.
A scene of their final battle played, with Fen just beginning his charge towards the Lesser Dragon. Fen could feel the magical power rippling through the Lesser Dragon's body and altering the space around them, heating the area up as the Dragon used it's power to formulate an endless amount of Flaming Spears.
A giddy feeling spread throughout Fen's chest.
'I...I can feel the magic!'